At 6 months, Samís an eater, even with his allergy to cow milk proteins

Now that Sam is 6 months old, Bekah finally has something new to say when people ask her about her brother. Thank goodness.

Her old standby had been a description of how he ate, with a brief period where she told everyone about his "boy parts," which once even led to a discussion of how many different words for her own parts she had.†The kid is going to ace vocabulary tests even if her father and I have died of embarrassment well before she takes her first one.

She hasn't moved far from her breastfeeding platform though. Now she just adds in a little about how Sam gets to use a spoon.

A few months ago she saw a picture of a person feeding a baby with a spoon in a book we were reading, and of course she wanted to try it. Explaining that Sam wasnít starting solids until he was 6 months old was getting confusing, so we went with the more tangible events of springtime.

ďWhen the flowers come up and the trees have leaves and Sam has a tooth," she repeated back to us every few days.

He got his first 2 teeth over Easter and another one this past Tuesday. Luckily, the neighbors have a Black Walnut tree that is always last to get green, and we kept telling her that ALL of the trees didnít have leaves yet. Its leaves came out enough to see this weekÖit was time.

I wasn't really in a hurry to start solids with Bekah, and I was even less motivated with Sam. Like Bekah, Sam has an allergy to cow milk proteins that is very obvious to anyone who has to change a gross and bloody diaper.

Unlike Bekah, I've been able to mostly manage his allergy by eliminating anything that even resembles dairy from my diet (which has included some things that I never realized had dairy at all).

With Bekah I pumped until the middle of June, even though she had been eating special dairy/ soy free formula for months, and by September she was able to start tolerating our freezer full of milk.

Samís allergy hasnít seemed anywhere near as bad as Bekahís, or at least it isnít to as much, which Iíve learned in a lot of ways is †much easier than always dragging bottles, formula and everything else all around, even if it does mean no ice cream for me.

Hopefully, like Bekah, Sam will grow out of his allergy and he and I can both start eating without worrying so much about what is in each and every thing. Until then, Iím thankful that he doesnít have a more serious allergy that we really have to be careful ofÖgoodness knows I can do without eating dairy for a while.

If you happen to see Bekah in a few weeks at the Kids are #1 Run, feel free to ask her about her brother. We actually got over being embarrassed about the things she says when she describes in great detail where Sam eats from.

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